Burma Storybook – nieuw in uw filmtheater!

burma story

Wereldpremière op IFFR 2017

Burma Storybook is filmische poëzie over een land dat haar weg zoekt na een lange periode van dictatuur. Door jarenlange isolatie is poëzie zelfs de meest populaire kunstvorm geworden. Er zijn zelfs meer online dichters dan bloggers. De docu van Petr Lom en Corinne van Egeraat, gaat tijdens het International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in wereldpremière. 

De 70-jarige Maung Aung Pwint, Myanmars (Birma) beroemdste dissidente dichter, is in de film het belangrijkste karakter. Zijn familie is verscheurd door de politieke geschiedenis. Maung Aung Pwint zat meer dan dertig jaar gevangen vanwege zijn teksten en activisme, terwijl zijn zoon al ruim twintig jaar als balling in Finland leeft. Het verlangen naar de verloren zoon en zijn langverwachte terugkeer vormen het hart van Burma Storybook. (Trailer)

Burma Storybook  Burma StoryBook

Tijdens IFFR is de Birmese dichteres Mae Yway te gast. Hierbij een interview met haar – door Petr Lom en Khin Aung Aye.

When did you move to Yangon?
My family moved when I was nine years old. I had culture shock. We were laughed at for how we spoke and our Myeik accent. I didn’t dare talk to people except for two or three friends. I didn’t dare speak in public: a feeling I have to this day. I’m afraid and shake all over when I recite my poetry in public.

When did you start writing poetry?
As a teenager. When I read a poem in a magazine, I wanted to write one on my own. I didn’t know you needed to study how to write. I just wrote down my emotions. But you can’t just write something down. You need to create it. Poetry has to be composed, so it will be beautiful, artistic. And not just poetry – for example, cooking is also an art. When cooking and combining ingredients, this is also creation. It’s also art. Creativity is essential. You should study every part of it. How does an onion taste if you add it to another ingredient? So, when you create a poem, you have to know other poems.

Did you study poetry at school?
At school, we were taught art is something useless, what losers do: if you are inclined to art, you will starve. That was the message to young students. I wanted to write poetry, but none of my friends were interested in poetry. We studied poetry at school, but no one respected poetry.

And politics?
The military government made young people indifferent to politics. Most of my friends, and most young people of our time, are still not interested in politics at all. Now with the new democratic government, the word “politics” has become popular, heard everywhere. Now some care about politics, some don’t. It’s a chaotic time. Myanmar’s political landscape is changing, but the country remains deeply conservative.

You wear your resistance on your skin – covered in tattoos.
It’s what I wanted to do very much since childhood – I liked tattoos since I was four or five years old. But I only had the courage to start tattooing in my twenties. Most people look badly on those who have tattoos. They look at me and think: what kind of girl am I? But I don’t care about those who stare. Some people think I got my tattoos – and do other things – like drinking and smoking – to show I can do whatever men can. But I don’t have gender differentiation in mind. I do it because I want to and like it. I will tattoo my entire body.

And you are looking for a similar freedom in your relationships?
I’m neither lesbian nor straight: I‘m human. I will have a relationship with whoever is okay with me, whether man or woman. Right now, I prefer girls. They are better at relationships. People around me say it’s disgusting that I hang out with girls, telling me not to reverse nature. I ask them: what is nature? There is no nature. It is nonsense that men must like women because they are men; and women must like men because they are women. These are only man-made issues. You have the right to choose. If you are just following what others do, your life has no meaning. You have your own life, your own existence. You have to go with our own thinking. If not, go back to the military government.

What do you do for a living?
I worked as an airline customer service agent for the last two years. I had a lot of responsibility, work pressure, taking care of passengers. When I came home, work was still in my head, dissatisfaction and anger too. I couldn’t read and write. I became depressed. The only thing I could save during those two years was money. And blank paper. No poems. No thinking. I can’t make a living from writing poetry. But I want to live with poetry, and improve my skills in writing. With no time and energy for poetry, it was worth it to give up my job. So I quit. I will find something else.

What place does poetry have in your life?
Poetry is not the most important thing. But it’s congruent with me. If I can’t write poetry I will be depressed and lose hope to live. Poetry is me. It’s inside me. So, as long as I exist, poetry will exist. If there is no me, there is no poetry.

Foto’s: ©Dana Lixenberg.

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